Sand Castles May Be Means to Build Funds for Charity

The Santa Monica City Council is considering sand castles as a means of generating tourism and money for charity.

The council voted Tuesday to look into the idea of a sand castle contest among architectural firms, similar to a successful contest that is held in San Francisco.

About 7,000 people attended the last contest held by the San Francisco-based Learning Through Education in the Arts Program, which raises money for arts programs in San Francisco schools. Trip Weil, an administrative assistant for the program, said architectural firms pay $300 and developers pay $500 in registration fees to the nonprofit organization so they can participate in the contest.